Reviewer:
MelodiousB
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February 28, 2008
Subject:
from redeemingqualities.wordpress.com
Peter Blood is an Irish doctor who has spent the past few years as a soldier in various parts of Europe. He’s just moved to a small English town, intending to work as a doctor and lead a relatively quiet life, but it turns out that the area he’s living in is heavily involved in the Monmouth Rebellion. Peter Blood thinks it’s pretty stupid, but he’s a doctor, so when he’s summoned to patch up one of the rebels, he doesn’t see anything wrong with that. Unfortunately for him, the dragoons disagree, and when they come around to arrest the rebels, they arrest Peter Blood, too.
The moral of this story is probably that if you’re ever on trial for something, it’s not a great idea to be rude to the judge. Even if he’s being really unreasonable and not listening to your defense, you should not make personal remarks about him and his health and the disease that’s eating away at him inside. If you do, you might get sent to Jamaica as a slave, like Peter Blood.
Okay, so he would have been sent to Jamaica even if he hadn’t made fun of Judge Jeffreys — an actual historical personage, by the way — but Sabatini’s heroes do tend to have problems keeping their mouths shut.
So, Peter Blood and a bunch of other rebels, including his pal Jeremy Pitt, get sent off to Jamaica, where Blood is bought by a beautiful young woman named Arabella Bishop, who feels sorry for him. Now, this means that Blood ends up working for her uncle, Colonel Bishop, who is apparently the second meanest slaveholder around. And that kind of sucks. But Arabella is beautiful and sympathetic, so when Blood and some other slaves run away in the middle of a pirate attack and make off with the pirates’ ship, he names it after her.
Because Peter Blood is terribly, terribly clever, he becomes the best pirate captain around. Eventually he meets Arabella again, and she tells him she hates pirates and he mopes a lot. And then he doesn’t. I don’t want to rehash the whole plot, but I would like to note the conversation in which Captain Blood is offered a commission in the Navy. He’s like, “Are you kidding me? King James sent me and my pals here to Jamaica. We hate King James! Why would we ever even consider working for King James?” And the guy offering him the commission is like, “King James? Yeah, he wasn’t so great. So we sent to Holland and got this new guy to come over. No one’s mentioned King William to you? Huh.”
Reviewer:
joelguide
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February 15, 2006
Subject:
An excellent high seas adventure!
This is an excellent and very readable story. It covers things like white slavery and the interplay between all the nations in the new world. This story grabs you and does not let you go. Captain Blood is a great hero.
A great high seas adventure.
Reviewer:
earther
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January 10, 2004
Subject:
better than the movie
Captain Blood tells the tale of a doctor, wrongly convicted and sentenced to slavery in the Caribean. His courage, brains and medical skills let him lead an escape, and he turns pirate. Of course, as the hero, he is not a pirate without principles, and he would give it all up for the woman he loves.
Sabatini delivers a ripping yarn, a tale of adventure and derring do. The historical details are here, and likely there, though Sabatini's research shines through. There is lots of plot, lots of action, and a good sense of the time and place. The baddies, the dons, the slavers, are wretched and vile. The challenges great, but the rewards at the end are satisfying.
I really liked the movie, but the book was even better.
(I'll also recommend Scaramouche here, but don't read it back to back with the Scarlet Pimpernel or it will set your moral compass spinning).